Artificial fishing lures are well known in the art. They are typically constructed to duplicate as accurately as possible the natural action of a fish swimming freely in the water, or to entice fish to strike at the lure through other non-naturally occurring actions. One type of action which many lures exhibit as they are drawn through the water is oscillatory motion in a vertical plane.
One method which has been used by the prior art to impart such oscillatory action to the lure is to provide the lure with a forwardly extending lip. Such a lip is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,611,205. As the lure is pulled through the water by a fishing line, water flows over the top of the lip, causing the lure to dive deeper. As the lure dives deeper, the angle of the fishing line tends to pull the lure upwardly, these two opposing forces resulting in an oscillatory path being followed by the fishing lure as it is pulled through the water.
A major problem with this design is that weeds and other marine objects can easily become entangled about the lip at the point where the fishing line is attached directly to the lip. When foreign objects become entangled at this point, the action of the lure is impeded due to the drag created by the foreign object and its effect on the flow of water around the lip. When the action of the lure is impeded, the effectiveness of the lure in enticing fish to strike at it is thereby diminished.